The smaller towns show similar increases in proportion to their population. Even where the population is stationary, there is increase: the post office is more in request by the inhabitants. Rarely, indeed, is there a tale to tell of decline. There is one curious instance in recent years of a Head Office being reduced to the rank of a sub-office on account of bad times, and it is curious because the explanation lies back in the mail coaching days. Bawtry is the first town in Yorkshire, on the Great North Road, and it was here that in olden times the High Sheriff of the county was accustomed to meet kings and queens on their journey to the north, welcome them to Yorkshire, and escort them through the county. The town flourished in the coaching days: it has a magnificent wide street, fine old inns, but it never adapted itself to the modern conditions. Scarcely a house has been added to the town during sixty years. Nevertheless Bawtry struggled gamely on as a Head Post Office on the strength mainly of its former importance, and possibly because of a sentimental objection at headquarters to deal hardly with a town distinguished in Post Office history. But facts had to be faced, and in the Post Office Circular of the 13th March 1900, sentence was pronounced in these cold words: “On and from the 15th March Bawtry will be reduced to the rank of a railway sub-office under Doncaster.” “The calamity of railways” had been Bawtry's misfortune, and there was something distinctly cruel in her new designation. But almost everywhere in Great Britain the story is quite different: new post offices have to be created, old post offices have to be enlarged, and the importance of the postmaster increases. It is his own fault if he does not take a high position in the business circles of the town which he serves. The postmaster is in all matters of discipline given wide powers, but in questions relating to the business of his office, he has to be guided largely by rules and regulations and by instructions from headquarters. The reason for this is obvious, because in a big Department like the Post Office the first requirement is uniformity of practice, and it would never do for one way of dealing with a matter to be in force at Bristol, another at Liverpool, and yet another at London. But it is the same in the Post Office as in all other big undertakings; everything depends upon the quality of the man who holds the position, and the Head Office in London retains the right to control his actions. One man can be trusted with responsibilities, another requires leading strings, and the machinery of the Department is flexible enough to deal with both men according to their needs.